vrijdag 30 december 2011

Three remarkable men filled the sky above the New Troy Police Headquarters. They seemed to glide through the air. They were clad in mesh of spandex and what seemed to be metal. On their gloves fins seemed to protrude, on their heads they wore a big fin as well. They had large teeth, like a shark's. One of them told the others, "Airsharks, there are our targets. Engage." "In other words, tear them apart!" another one remarked. With that they swooped down. Beneath them four armed cops were guiding two super villains into an armored car - Panzerman and Icepick, both out of costume. The cops were being led by sergeant Wade Hudson. He was the first one to notice the three men fall from the sky. "What the hell?" The Airsharks attacked without mercy. One of them picked up two cops, flew up and dropped them down on the pavement. A second one ripped out a cop's throat with his teeth while the third used his fins that appeared to be sharp as razorblades to slash open another cop's gut. "Monsters!" Wade yelled furiously an unloaded his gun on the attackers. They bullets didn't seem to hurt them though. They just laughed. "Just keep on laughing. I'm just going to need some heavier artillery," Wade said and ran off, heading towards a parked police cruiser. "You do that, meanwhile we complete our mission," the Airshark's leader said and grabbed hold of Icicle's throat. Icepick struggled, trying to get free. An icicle formed in his right hand. He wasn't fast enough, however. The Airshark broke his neck. Panzerman, powerless without his armor ran as fast as he could. "Dammit, Master Destiny must've sent those creeps. Afraid we might spill something." He walked straight into the arms of two Airsharks who had simply flown past him. They smiled, baring their fanglike teeth. The remarked Panzerman was dead meat. When Wade returned with a huge shotgun the Airsharks were already airborne, leaving the corpses of the two captured supervillains sprawled on the pavement. He shot a few times into the air, but it was no use. "I'll get you monsters for this," he swore. "Whatever it takes."

*

Godling entered the first aid part of the New Troy Hospital. Nurses, doctors and patients stared at him, full of amazement. It was not every day a man with a perfect physique in garish clothing walked in like that. One of the nurses, a pretty, freckled redhair recognized him, "I saw you on TV. You captured those superpowered bank robbers and saved that security guard. You're Godling!" The hero gave her a warm smile. "I'm becoming a celebrity already." The nurse blushed. "What can we do for you? Are you hurt?" "No, I'm not. Actually I'm not here for myself. I'm here to do something for these people," Godling said and made clear with a gesture of his muscled arms that he was talking about the patients. "I'm here to heal them." "Like you did what that security guard?" The freckled nurse was fascinated. A male nurse, pushing a cart with a bleeding man on it said, "Then start with this guy. Bad blade wound. A cop. He'll be dead if we don't act fast." "All right. I will," Godling said and walked over to the bleeding cop. He was bleeding from the stomach. Godling asked the nurse what happened to him. "Three supervillains I heard. They attacked the police station. This guy was one of the luckiest of the bunch. Three others got killed." Godling's thought confused him. Part of him felt anger towards the villains who'd hurt these men, but part of him wondered if maybe Wade Hudson would be one of the victims, leaving Monica Sawyer single and available for him. He felt disgusted with himself. Time to show himself he was a noble being. Time to heal. He put his hands on the wound like he'd done a few days ago to heal the security guard at the bank robbery. He felt his own life energy coursing outside of him again, through his hands, into the wounded man. The wound closed. "That is fantastic!" the male nursed exclaimed, full of excitement. Godling smiled, feeling very good. "It is, isn't it?"

*

The Airsharks entered the room where Master Destiny usually resided. As always he was surrounded by beautiful women and blinking monitors. His spear was in his right hand. The Airsharks' leader bowed before Master Destiny. "We were successful, Master. Panzerman and Icepick won't be able to rat you out." "That's very good. Very good," Master Destiny said. "You have given me confidence you are up to your next mission. There's this being who has taken out several projects of mine. He needs to be eliminated. It is a man who calls himself Godling." The Airsharks' leader saluted his boss. "He's as good as dead, Master."

*

Dozens of patients were lining up in the hospital to get cured by Godling. Knife wounds, broken arms, food poisonings, every injury or ailment known to man seemed to pass by his healing hands. Godling felt his own energy being drained every time he healed someone. Finally, try to use his healing powers on a badly beaten up kid he just collapsed. Worried, the freckled nurse kneeled beside him. "Godling? Godling? Are you okay?" Godling managed to sit up. "Just a little bit woozy. It seems I may have exhausted myself a little bit." Impressed, the nurse asked him if in healing these people he was in fact damaging his own health. "It seems so," he answered. "Wow, you really ARE a hero, aren't you?" "Well, I guess maybe I --," he started to say. But suddenly Circe, the mythical sorceress appeared. She grabbed his hand. In a flash they were gone, leaving the pretty nurse quite confused and without the hero.

*

Circe and Godling both reappeared in a green meadow filled with ancient Greek buildings. The Greek gods whose powers Godling borrowed to make his amazing feats possible were lined up next to each other, most of them standing there with their arms crossed and a stern look on their faces. Godling felt like he was standing before some sort of tribunal. He was kind of right. "Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong or something?" Zeus stepped forward. "You have been breaking one important rule. We do not decide over life and death the way you have been doing this day." "What, you mean by healing those poor people? What's so bad about that?" "If humans come to depend on us to much they will become weak. What will happen then if we are not there to guide them any more. No, your mission is to make them believe in us once again, but not by treating them as your babies. You need to inspire them, help them realize their maximum potential. Protect them from evil." Godling found the courage in himself to disagree with the leader of the Greek gods. "I am protecting them from evil, right? Some of those victims were hurt as a result by attacks from evil ones, weren't they." All of a sudden a dark mist rose up from nowhere. From it a dark humanoid shape stepped forward. He was tall, thin and dressed in a dark cloak. His eyes were glowing a faint red light. "Shut your defiant mouth, demi-god." Godling felt like he was being gripped around the throat by a cold, strong hand. The professor of mythology that was his alter ego understood who this being had to be. "Thanatos." "Yes. I am Thanatos, I am Death." Pompous speech, but the God was speaking the truth. "I visit the humans to take them away to Hades. You have no right to whisk them away from my grasp. If you continue that way, people will cease to believe in Death and I will cease to exist." "So working to make people believe in the other Gods I will make them stronger and you weaker? That doesn't sound to bad?" Thanatos pointed an angry finger at the hero. "You think the world will be so nice without Death? Let me show you what the world would look like." Godling became totally surrounded by the black mist. He started waving his arms, trying to make the mist dissipate. When the mist cleared he was looking at all kinds of scenes that seemed to happen in one space. It was like having all kinds of computer screen standing next to each other, but instead of computers the image were live, 3-D. He saw humans shooting each other, getting up, then shooting each other again. He saw men hacking into each other, blood everywhere. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Building were burning down, stores were being looted. An orgy was going on, dozens of people involved. There were people of all kinds of ages lying on the floor, leaning against the walls, shooting their arteries full of drugs. He saw no art, no love, no peace, no sports, no kindness. "What... How... What.." Godling stuttered. Thanatos was right behind him. "That is what happens if men do not fear Death. They have no reason not to take what they want, because they do not need to fear the wraith of those they take it from. They can fornicate what they want, because they cannot get any venereal diseases. Because there is no Death there is no danger, no excitement. They live forever and forever is too long a time for them, so they seek their escape in drugs. They fight to unleash their anger because there is no fear to die from their injuries." "I... I never looked at death that way. As... necessary..." Godling confessed. "Come back with me," Thanatos said. "You seem to have learned your lesson from me." The mist appeared again. It hung around them for a minute and dissipated. They were back with the other Gods again. "Have you learned your lesson?" Zeus asked. "I guess. But it's not like I'm making the whole world immortal." "No, but you are killing me..." a tired voice said. Goding saw a weak old man, leaning down on a wooden cane. "What do you mean?" "I am Asclepius, whose powers you have been channeling all day. I have almost no power left in me anymore to power you anymore. Not even enough to power myself. You are using too much energy." "So I should take it easy, is that the message?" "Yes, in a way. When you come into a situation as a hero where you encounter a wounded one you are allowed to heal them. But you cannot walk around these men like a full God. You know I once killed Asclepius for bringing someone back from the dead." Asclepius groaned. "Took me a long time to get back to Olympeus again. I do not want to go back to Hades." Godling held up his hands in surrender. "I got it. You don't want me to be a Prometheus. Good, if you think I am using my powers in a harmful way like that, maybe I should take it easy." "Good, now go back to Earth. As a reward for listening to us I will lead you to the men that attacked those policemen," Zeus said. He threw a thunderbolt at Godling who braced for impact. But instead of hurting him the thunderbolt seemed to teleport him right into the base of the Airsharks.

* The Airsharks' base was the rooftop of a New Troy skyscraper. It was sparsely furnished with a few chairs and a table and was mainly used to divide the money they earned with their missions. They were just doing so. "And to think Master Destiny will double that money when we take out that Godling character," the Airsharks' leader said, counting out his share. Another Airshark, watching his leader count the money, making sure he didn't take more as the deal was said, "Yeah, this Destiny is getting us filthy rich. But of course first we need to track down that Godling guy. It's not like he's in the Yellow Pages, so we--," His mouth fell open. Godling was standing right in front of them. "You are going to pay for what you did to those cops." "Don't let this opportunity pass by, Airsharks! Attack!" the leader shouted. Two Airsharks grabbed hold of Godling and whisked him up into the air. They flew higher and higher. The hero looked down. That could be a nasty drop. Time to act. He raised his arms and grabbed hold of the Airshark's head fins. Using them, he banged their heads together. CRACK! They dropped him. Falling down, Godling channeled the powers of Perseus so he could fly. He was glad he still had enough energy to do so. He flew towards the two Airsharks. Dazed, they flew in a drunken pattern, like a fly that had just been swatted. He concentrated, flying as fast as he could, landing with both feet into one of the Airsharks' face. The villain was catapulted right into the wall of a large building. Unconscious, he dropped down. Godling flew down to pick him up. He wasn't about to hand him over to Thanatos. That didn't go with his idea of a hero. Behind him the other Airshark and his leader were flying towards him. Godling felt rather than saw them coming and turned around. The Airshark in his arms hindered his maneuverability, leaving him little chance to evade the oncoming villains. And if he channeled Achilles' invulnerability he'd loose his flying powers. The attacking Airsharks laughed. "That money is ours..." The razor sharp fins clawed into the hero's skin.

* On Olympus Thanatos smiled. It seemed there was another one to pick up soon.

dinsdag 27 december 2011

Professor Quentin Alexander was sitting in a diner with his colleague Monica Sawyer. They were having a cup of coffee together on their lunch break. "Wade encountered something very weird yesterday," Monica told Quentin. Wade being her fiancée, and a sergeant with the New Troy Police Department. "There was this muscular guy in weird clothing taking out the Speed Demons." "That does sound weird," Quentin admitted. He was thinking how much weirder it would be to Monica if she knew she was sitting across the muscular guy she was talking about. "Does the guy have a name?" "He called himself Godling. Sound pretty arrogant, right?" Quentin shrugged. "If he took out the Speed Demons maybe he has a reason to be a little arrogant." "Maybe. But what's so weird is that according to Wade this Godling character had all sorts of superpowers." "That sounds only weird to a degree. There've been a growing number of superpowered villains appearing all over town. Maybe it was time a superpowered hero appeared." "Yeah, but where are all these people coming from? Everybody wants to know but nobody seems to." Monica was right of course. Quentin knew where his powers came from, but he didn't think the villains got those from the Greek gods. Up till then no reporter, detective or whoever had unraveled the secret of those powered villains. They almost never got captured and whenever they did they were keeping their lips zipped. Suddenly there was a lot of noise outside which sounded like "KRA-KA-KOOM!" "What was that?" Monica said and looked through the window. Across the street there was smoke coming from the bank that was situated there. When the smoke cleared a large hole in the wall was visible. Monica shifted her view from the window back to Quentin but to her big surprise he was gone.

*

What Monica didn't know was that Quentin had used the speed of Hermes to quickly leave their booth and head for the bank, changing into Godling. He passed citizens staring shaken up at the bank with such speed some of them lost their hats and had to hold on to their glasses. Inside the bank were to garishly clothed characters. One was dressed in a blue and white skintight outfit and a ski-mask, the other was dressed in black armored plating, which made him look like a human tank. "Hello everyone," the man with the ski mask said. "My name is Icepick and this is my partner in crime Panzerman. If you relieve yourselves of all your money nobody gets hurt." A security guard went for his gun. He'd been working at the bank for years and he'd be damned if someone would rob it just before his pension. Icepick created a large icicle out of nothing in his hands and threw it. He hit the security guard in the chest. The guard went down, clutching his wound. "I warned you," Icicle said. A female bank employee sat down with the guard, trying to stem his bleeding. She looked up at Icepick. "You monster!" The villain just smiled. "Sticks and stones. I'm too cool to be bothered with that." "Well maybe you can be bothered by this?" a voice said and Icepick was knocked across the room. Godling had arrived, having used his Heracles strength to take the villain out. "The boss warned us about you," Panzerman said. "He'll reward me very nicely for taking you down." "Give it your best shot," Godling said, while wondering who exactly Panzerman's boss was. Panzerman did. His best shot was a punch that sent Godling flying into one of the walls, so hard the plaster came down from the ceiling. If it hadn't been for his Achilles invulnerability he would've been dead. Rubbing his neck Godling got up again. He understood there was no reason to hold back against this foe. Time to go full speed ahead. With Hermes speed he came at Panzerman, like a bullet from a pistol. Just before he connected with the villain he channeled the strength of Heracles and hit him with a roundhouse right. The speed combined with the strength had the effect for Panzerman of getting hit by a F-16. He was hurled through the air, through the wall. He bumped into a police car that had just arrived, almost breaking it in half. In front of the bank more and more people had shown up, including a few photographers. A SWAT team had the bank surrounded, guns drawn. Among them was sergeant Wade Hudson, asking himself what the hell was going on. Godling ran towards Panzer again and started to strip the still dizzy villain of his armor. He then wrapped it around him, trapping him in his own armor. "Sergeant, he's ready to be driven to the station," Godling told Wade, recognizing him. "It's you again, huh?" Wade has his arms crossed and looked very annoyed. "What do you think you're doing? This is our work, I told you that before." That ticked Godling off somewhat. He'd just risked his own health fighting those villains and now he was getting his ass verbally kicked. "Come on, sergeant! You guys are heroes, fighting the good fight against these superpowered thugs with just your wits and guns but you're largely outmatched by them. I'm just trying to help out, do what's right and get this city safe." Wade made a gesture with his hand at the bank behind him. "Take a look at that building! You trashed it! You're not a hero, you're a vandalistic hazard." "Think what you like," Godling said. "There's a guy in there needing medical attention and I'm going to see to it that he gets it." With those words he hurried back into the bank. The female bank employee was still sitting with the wounded guard. Godling kneeled next to them. He was no doctor but he could channel the powers of all Greek gods, right? So he should be able to channel those of Asclepius, the god of healing as well. When he tried to he felt his hands start to tingle and glow. Gently he put them on the guard's wound. The icicle had already melted, but the wound still was there and looking very nasty. It was as if he felt his own life energy coursing outside of him, through his hands, into the wounded man. Before his amazed eyes Godling saw the wound close. Coughing, the guard sat up suddenly. "What happened? I was in incredible pain, and now it's all gone?" In awe he looked at his rescuer. "Did you do that? Did you heal me?" "I guess I did," Godling answered, still pretty shook up himself. So far, he'd only just his powers in an offensive, aggressive way. But this, this was fantastic. With this power he could help so many people. He had to think this over. But first he had to get back to Monica. She'd probably be looking for him, the sudden way he disappeared. Quickly he ran off. But Monica wasn't looking for him at that moment. She was in the arms of her fiancée, Wade Hudson. She looked to be a little shook up by what happened. That figured, she'd be more interested in the strong arms of that macho cop than in those of a weak professor in mythology. He decided to just leave. Using the powers of Perseus he flew off.

*

"I'm worried about Quentin," Monica told Wade. "He suddenly disappeared when the bank robbery started. I was looking outside at the noise and when I looked back at where he was sitting he just went up in smoke." "Come on, baby, don't worry about the professor. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself. He's just a little cowardly. Probably ran off for his mommy when he saw what was going on." "Quentin is not a coward! He stood up for me against the Speed Demons [editor's note - it happened in #1]!" Wade held up his hands in defense. "All right, all right. Forget I said that. He's a true American hero. Speaking of which, where's that longhaired terrorist Godling?" One of the SWAT officers pointed to the sky, "He flew away." Wade grunted. "Typical. Leaving us to clean up the junk. Load those baddies into the van. Keep them sedated. I don't want them to use their crazy tricks on the way over to the station. I want some answers from those guys. It's time we found out where they get their powers from." He gave Monica a quick kiss and told her he'd call her in the evening. He had work to do. Monica watched the cops load the villains into their armored van and drive off. She stayed there looking at them until they disappeared behind the horizon, wondering why Quentin just left her alone like that.

*

Quentin was back in his office at the University. He was sitting behind his desk, his head resting in his hands. He was feeling so many things at the same time he didn't know what to think about. He felt elated he'd just discovered another power he could use to help mankind but also felt sad and jealous about Monica's love for Wade. Were those the thoughts of a hero? Those of petty jealousy? Wade was an honest, upstanding cop. A real hero to the city. He'd been protecting New Troy long before Quentin did. And he didn't need superpowers to persuade him to put his life on the line. Feeling disgusted with himself he got up and swept his books of his desk with one move of his arm.

* In his computer-filled room the mysterious man with the spear clenched his fist. On one of his monitors he saw Icepick and Panzerman being hauled off by the police. "Damn that longhaired do-gooder!" Two Asian females dressed in long purple dresses came in carrying trays of food. "Master Destiny, please let us take care of your sorrows. We bring you the finest food of our country." "What do I care about your stupid food? That Godling is taking out all my men!" The man the women called Master Destiny aimed his spear at one of the trays. A red beam shot from it and destroyed the tray. "Leave me!" The women hurried off. Leaning on his spear Master Destiny talked to himself. "I can't let him interfere with my plans. The city of New Troy has to be mine if I am to carry out the rest of my plans. He needs to be taken out. I need more villains."

* Icepick was being interrogated by Wade Hudson at the station. He was seated in a crummy old chair in a dark interview room. Wade was leaning into him, shouting. The only thing separating them was a table between them. "You'd better tell us how you came by those powers, you thug! It's the only way to get a shorter sentence!" "I'm not telling you anything," the villain said decidedly, his arms crossed. Wade hammered his fist on the table. "If you don't your buddy Panzerman will. And then it's too late for you as well!" "Whatever you've got planned for me it won't be as bad as what will happen when I squeal." "Squeal? You're protecting someone? Someone who'll kill you if you tell me anything? I can help you get protection. Get you set up in a witness protection scheme." "Forget it! I'm leaving!" Icepick said and got up. He formed two icicles in his hands. He trusted them back, ready to strike at Wade. The sergeant however, kicked him between the legs and punched him in the face. Icepick stumbled back and fell over his chair. Wade rubbed his fist. "Don't try that again, punk. But okay, if you want to play it that way that's fine with me. You're going to be locked away."

*

"Quentin?" a voice sounded from professor Alexander's door. He was still standing in his office, looking dazed at the books on the ground, thrown there in an outburst caused by the inner conflict between jealousy and heroism. Quentin looked at the door. "Monica?" Every time he saw her he was struck by her beauty. That shiny hair, those lustrous curls and full lips, her pale unblemished skin. "Quentin, are you all right? You look troubled? And where did you suddenly go to at the diner?" Monica asked. She didn't seem annoyed at his leaving. Just worried. One more reason to love her. "I went out to phone the cops and noticed I'd be too late for my next lecture when I wouldn't leave soon. I passed a taxi and decided to catch it." Great, now not only was he a jealous hero, but also a lying one. "Don't ever do that to me, Quentin. I was so worried about you." "I'm sorry, Monica. You know me, sometimes I mess up a little." Quentin shrugged helplessly. Monica shook her head. "It's just impossible to be angry with you, professor. But let me tell you what happened while you were gone. I saw Godling! He was just amazing!" Quentin sighed. Another hero to compete against for professor Alexander.

vrijdag 16 december 2011

After 9-11 the fear had gotten worse and worse. We feared for our lives from the terrorists that were prepared to die to inflict their damage on our society. I felt so powerless against it all. To top it off, my own city had fallen into the hands of strangely powered villains. Nobody knew where they came from, they just suddenly were there. They were armed with futuristic blaster weapons, some could control heat or cold or fire energy blasts with their fists. And where was I? Teaching mythology at the University. I was too weak to fight. But looking at the movie reels of the war, I could think about only one thing. What if the old gods still lived. What if we had heroes like Hercules and Achilles at our side? What if we were able to wield the power of Zeus to strike at the enemies threatening our city? And then came the day I got my chance....

I was walking across the campus grounds with professor Monica Sawyer when out of nowhere five leather-clad men appeared. On the backs of their jackets they wore a logo that said 'Speed Demon Gang.' I knew them. They'd been plaguing the city for weeks now. They'd been looting stores, beating up people at random, stealing purses; they'd even been raping women. They acted like a street gang permanently on amphetamines with an extra edge - super speed. They seemed to be able to move faster than sound, which made the police helpless against them. How do you stop a criminal who you can't hit, can't shoot, just because he's so fast you hardly see him? The fact that they now were on campus grounds spelled big trouble for everyone present. One of them walked over to Monica. I immediately felt all my protective instincts rise to the surface. I'd been in love with Monica since the first time I laid eyes on her. A pity she's engaged to a tough cop and not interested in a bookish nerdy professor like me. The Speed Demon grabbed her arm. "How about a little kiss, hottie?" "L-leave her alone," I told him. I wish I hadn't stuttered. Maybe then I would've made more impact. The Speed Demon laughed and shoved me to the ground. "How romantic. You like being a hero? Well, maybe you can save a cat from a tree?" He grabbed me and pulled me along with him. I couldn't resist against him, everything just happened too fast. When he let me go I found myself hanging in a tree. From there I could see the Speed Demons throw rocks through the University windows, steal student's money and jewelry. After a few minutes they got bored. Maybe being able to do everything at super speed does that to you pretty quickly. Anyway, the just left. Kicking up dust, they were gone in the blink of an eye. Monica stood at the base of the tree, looking up. "Need any help getting down?"

Later that day, after the damage had been assessed by the insurance company and the cops had been by to take their statements I went for a walk on the campus grounds again. Monica had invited me for dinner with her and her fiancée, Wade Hudson, but I didn't feel like it. She said she wanted to thank me for stepping in there for her. That made me feel even more stupid. The only thing I'd managed to do was getting my ass kicked. The only reason she was left alone was that the Speed Demon liked making a fool of me more than hurting Monica. Wade would've at least gotten one good punch in. I really wished I could do something against these Speed Demon guys. If they'd continue on their rampage across the city there won't be much left of it in a couple of weeks. Then, from a tree appeared one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. "Professor Alexander?" she said. "Yes? Do I know you?" I asked, surprised. She was so beautiful and exotic, wearing a thin jade gown and bedecked by sparkling jewelry. "From name, yes," she said. "Or maybe I should say by legend. My name is Circe." I blinked. "Circe? Like the sorceress from Greek myth?" "Yes, I am she." "You shouldn't drink that much." She sighed. "So you want proof? Fine. Watch that handsome boy." She pointed at one of the students walking the grounds. I knew him. He was a good football player. Her hand started to glow with a purple light. The boy started to... change. He became smaller, his ears started to change, his nose.... And finally there was no football player anymore. Not even a human being. No, where there had been a student now stood a... pig! "I'm dreaming!" I said. "No dream," she said. "I'm really here. And I'm here to take you to Olympus." "Olympus? But...." She moved her hands in a strange pattern. We became enveloped by purple light and suddenly.... I wasn't on the campus grounds anymore. Where I was it took me a while to believe. They had to be gods. The man with the white beard holding the shaft of lighting had to be Zeus, the woman with the large shield Athena. It was like they'd stepped right out of the ancient Greek vases I'd studied for years. There were dozen more like them... I glanced at Circe with big eyes. "Are they really...?" "Gods? Yes. Welcome on Olympus." I couldn't help but kneel, overwhelmed as I was by the presence of godhood. "Stand, son!" the one who had to be Zeus bellowed. "We have no need for your worship. Instead we have need of you as our messenger." I got up, a bit embarrassed by my actions. I thought it against my principles to bow for anyone. And it felt very wrong to bow for these beings. I'd been raised a Catholic, and although my faith had lapsed through the years I still felt like I'd sinned. The things you feel when facing godhood. "Messenger? What do you mean?" "When you look at us closely you will notice we sometimes turn less tangible..." Zeus was right. Sometimes I could see right through them, and even for a blink of an eye they seemed to shimmer out of existence. "That is because the faith of the people on Earth has dwindled to a bare minimum. And without faith we cannot exist, for it is that same faith that has created us, centuries ago. We need people to believe in us again, and we want to use you to help us achieve this goal." "What? You want me to act as your prophet? Or priest or something? I don't know if I'm right for that. I mean giving a lecture is a whole lot different from preaching the gospel of the Olympic gods. Besides, won't I go to Hell for that?" Zeus smiled. "Not even Hades. But no, we don't need you as a standard prophet or cleric. We want to give the world a hero to remember us by. It is obvious the time is very right for a new hero to appear. With the terrorist actions across the world, the super powered villains showing up, with the dangers yet to come... A hero will make the greatest impact on the people. And you will be that hero. The biggest hero the world has ever known." "Hey!" a huge guy covered in a wolves' skin protested. "Quiet, Heracles!" Zeus ordered. The guy obeyed. With the kind of voice Zeus had everyone would have. "Please, son. Get in the basin." He pointed at a large, stone basin. Its edge was surrounded by impressive looking, ornate, bejeweled knives, all placed with their points down in the stones. Thirteen steps led to its bottom. Without thinking I did what he said. "Undress," he told me. So I did. It was if I had no mind of my own. Heracles guffawed at the sight of my naked self. "Ha! Is that the body of a hero?" Zeus silenced him with but a gaze. "All right," Circe said. "Let the bloodletting begin." "The what?" I asked. Then all the mythical beings gathered around the basis and plucked the knives from the basin's edge. They started to cut themselves. I yelled them to stop, not sure what they were doing but it looked like suicide. "Don't worry, they have a lot of blood to bleed. They're not human like you, remember," Circe said. The basin filled with their blood and I found myself bathing in it. And the more the basin filled, the stranger I started to feel. It was if the blood rushed into every pore of my body. I started to feel more alive, more invigorated than ever. "W-what is happening to me?" I uttered. "Just relax," Circe said. "It's just part of the ritual." Suddenly all of the Olympians' wounds started to close and the blood disappeared from the basin. "Get out of the basin, son," Zeus said. I climbed the steps out of it. "What did just happen?" I asked Circe. "We just granted you the ability to channel the powers of all Olympians gathered here," the sorceress told me. "What do you mean?" "Just think about Heracles' strength," she said. I did, and noticed how Heracles' body started to shimmer again, like he was going to disappear. But at the same time I felt the blood rush through my arteries like a speeding train. I felt... stronger somehow. "Hit that stone column," Circe said and pointed at an impressive looking stone column that had once held up an Olympian structure but now stood there as a reminder of a once majestic place. "Hit it? Are you crazy? I don't want to break my hand!" "Trust me." "Do it," Zeus said. "Okay, I must be crazy, but here goes." I drew back my fist and hit the column. My fist shattered it like it was nothing. Amazed I saw it crumble to dust. I went numb. Circe smiled a mischievous smile. "Incredible isn't it. Now think about Hermes' power of flight." I shrugged and did. Heracles seemed to become more solid, but now the helmeted form of Hermes started to fade. I felt my blood rush trough my body again. Suddenly I was in the air. I was flying. Like in a dream, I was flying. It felt incredible, free, wonderful. "He still doesn't look like a hero to me," Heracles mentioned. "Allow Poseidon to rectify that," a bearded figure with a trident said. I knew who he was without hearing him say his name. He walked over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Remember the myth of how Poseidon, at her request transformed the the maiden Caenis into the invulnerable, male warrior Caeneus?" "Of course I do. I teach about myths for a living." Poseidon walked forward and gently put his trident against my forehead. I felt my bones move inside my body, my muscles grow. "Look," Poseidon said and created a lake out of nothing. I peered into it and found myself staring back at a longhaired, muscular warrior. My clothes had changed as well. Instead of my usual suit and tie I wore yellow boots, a gold belt with a studded red ruby in the middle, wristbands, dark blue leather britches and a blue jerkin, all with gold stitched linings. I cut a very impressive figure. "Now that is the way a hero's supposed to look," Zeus said, quite satisfied. "Now get back to earth and show you can act like one as well. I think there are some heinous villains you would like to test your new power on." Before I could say anything Circe stepped over to me and took my hand. We were enveloped in the same strange light again that brought me to Olympus and suddenly we were gone again. I was standing in the middle of a dark alley. I was looking at the leather clad backs of the Speed Demons. They were arguing. "I get 30% ! I was the one who tried all the combinations on the safe in record time. I earned the most!" one said. "Bull! I was the one who took out the guards. I've earned it the most!" another one said. This was it. Time to be a hero. It was everything I'd wished for, right. Time to show some courage. "Don't fight. I've got another idea. You give all the money back from whoever you stole it from. How's that?" They turned around. "Who're you supposed to be, clown?" I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look as impressive as possible. "I'm Godling, and I'm the one who's giving the city back to the decent people." One of them unsheathed a knife. "You're the one who's going to bleed to death in this alley, clown! That's who you are!" He came at me with lightning speed, but I had the fighting reflexes of Ares. I punched him in the face just before he could cut me. He went down. I picked him up, using the strength of Heracles and threw him into a pile of trash cans. Another one came at me, moving so fast I couldn't really see him. He started to punch me. Then, I channeled the speed of Hermes and managed to match evade his blows and match him punch for punch. He went down just as nicely as the first Speed Demon had. Three left to go. The started to run around me with such speed I got caught into a twister. I felt my feet leave the ground. I got trouble breathing. I had to think of something. I couldn't run away with Hermes' speed or use the fighting skills of Ares in this predicament. "Gonna kill you! Gonna kill you!" I heard their voices buzzing around me. They thought they'd defeated me. Time to prove them wrong. I clapped my hands together with the strength of Heracles, as hard as I could. The resulting shockwave threw the Speed Demons to the ground. I fell down to the ground, using the athletics of Achilles to break my fall, roll and get up. Still a bit disoriented the Speed Demons tried to get up. I kicked one down while I took another one out with a chop to the throat. The last one I picked up and held him high above my head. I recognized him. He was the one who left me in the tree. "I'm the one doing the shoving around now, buddy," I told him and using the powers of Perseus flew up. Then I dropped him. With a loud thud he fell into a dumpster. In the distance I could hear sirens. Good, they could take these guys with them. Two police cars stopped and four cops got out, guns at the ready. I recognized one of them. It was Wade Hudson. This was the first time I looked more muscled than him. "Freeze," he said. I got up my hands. "Don't panic. I'm on your side. I just took care of the Speed Demons for you. They're all ready to be taken down to jail. You'll find some stolen goods in their possession I think." "Who are you?" Hudson wanted to know. "The name is Godling. I'm here to help you get things under control in this city." "I'm not sure we need a vigilante running around. Catching the bad guys is our job." "We'll see," I said. Before he could go on I was gone, using the speed of Hermes. It felt good being a hero.

Somewhere, in a secret location, filled with computers and ancient artifacts a tall man stood, watching a monitor. In his hand was a large bejeweled spear. He wasn't happy. The monitor showed the image of four cops arresting the Speed Demons. A scantily clad woman walked over to him and touched his chest. "Why are you so angry?" "There's some kind of costumed do-gooder in the city, taking out my men. I invested in that gang. I'll need to invest some more. This city will be mine, whatever the cost! And if that Godling character wants to interfere... He'll die!"

I have been writing about Godling for several years now. I will be putting up his stories on this blog.Quentin Alexander is a college professor with an amazing ability... He's got the power to channel the amazing abilities of the Greek Gods and heroes, making him the greatest super hero of his time and a One Man Pantheon.

Over mij

I am a dutch writer, writing often in english. My special interests are crime movies and novels, rock music (I am a rock reporter for a dutch site) and comic books.
You can write me at jvdsteen@hotmail.com